September 16, 2022
A conceptual rendering of the discovery

Discovery of a Temperate “Super-Earth” in the Habitable Zone Around a Nearby Star

Using the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea and the Faulkes telescope on Haleakalā, observers have discovered two temperate, rocky planets a little larger than our own Earth, and both orbiting a faint red star just 100 light years from us. One of the two lies in the star’s “habitable zone” and so could have liquid water on its surface. Read more, […]
September 12, 2022
Artistic rendition of the exoplanet TOI-1452 b

CFHT Detects a Probable Ocean World

Astronomers using the Canada-France Hawaii telescope have identified a probable “Ocean World”  among the candidates found by NASA’s TESS satellite. Measuring the minute wobble of the planet’s host star, they found that planet is much less dense than a rocky body like Earth. The planet is also far enough from its star that water can exist as liquid, so this […]
August 2, 2022
Schematic diagram of Ross 508 planetary system

Subaru Telescope Survey Detects Its First Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone

Researchers using the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea have found an exoplanet which spends about half its time in the “habitable zone” around its host star, and which may be able to retain liquid water on its surface. The exoplanet – known as Ross 508b – will be a prime target for life searches by a future generation of large telescopes. […]
April 12, 2022
AB Aurigae

Subaru Telescope Spots a Planet in Formation

Using the Subaru telescope on Maunakea, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet in the process of being formed in another solar system. This ground-breaking experiment provides evidence for a long-debated alternative theory for how Jupiter-like planets form. Read more, in the Subaru Telescope web release.
September 17, 2020

A White Dwarf’s Surprise Planetary Companion

Foretelling one possible (distant!) future for our own Solar System, a giant exoplanet has been discovered orbiting close to a white dwarf star. This discovery shows that it is possible for Jupiter-sized planets to survive their star’s demise and settle into close orbits around the remaining stellar ember, near the habitable zone. Read more, in the Gemini Observatory press release.
May 1, 2020

Super-Jupiter Discovered in Kepler-88 System

A team of astronomers using the Keck Observatory on Maunakea have discovered a planet three times the mass of Jupiter in a distant planetary system. This new planet, named Kepler-88 d, is the most massive planet in the Kepler-88 system, and takes 4 years to orbit around its central star. The astronomers show that, analogous to the role Jupiter plays […]
February 13, 2020

Astronomers Study the Formation of “Failed Stars”

A team of astronomers has used the Keck and Subaru telescopes on Maunakea to gain new insight into the processes of star and planet formation. They observed 27 star systems with planet-scale objects in orbit around them, by using specialized techniques to separate the light from the parent star and the much-dimmer orbiting objects. Some of the orbiters were giant […]